The Reel Politics of International Crisis: Celebrity Appeals for Syrian Refugees

• In Event: Political Communication Across Asia

Abstract

Celebrities, by their very definition, attract attention and hold influence. Many have used their star power to highlight humanitarian or environmental problems. Yet how much ability does a celebrity's involvement with a charity campaign have to actually change minds and shape political opinions? We conducted an experiment to explore this question. In it, we showed some individuals a charity video outlining the Syrian refugee crisis and we showed others the same video with the addition of a short request for help from the actor, Benedict Cumberbatch. We find that while the emotional, vivid images of the video did elicit a statistically significant increase in students' positive feelings toward Syrian refugees and efforts to help them, surprisingly, Cumberbatch's plea had no effect at all on these political views. Post-experiment focus groups allowed us to further probe these findings, and we suggest that viewer skepticism reduces celebrity influence, but that celebrity may be more effective as a "hook" in grabbing viewers' attention, than in actually swaying their views. We also find that participation in a charity plea has the potential to benefit celebrities themselves by dramatically improving viewers' perceptions of them.

Authors

• Michael Artime, Pacific Lutheran University

• Megan J. Hershey, Whitworth University